Aug 29, 2009

Don't Judge Andre on His OBP%, that Wasn't His Job

Whenever Andre is mention in an article on who should or shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame I receive a Google alert. Majority of the time I'm pleased with the outcome of the article, probably 75% of those writing these articles, I would estimate say The Hawk should be in. Of the remaining 25% it often comes down to Andre's career On-Base Percentage (OBP) of .323. They feel that is too low to be in the Hall of Fame.

OBP hasn't really been a statistic that has had Hall of Fame merit until recent years. Since it has, I think that OBP is a stat that should be weighed more heavily on lead-off or two-hole type hitters, not players batting in the clean-up position. A large part of the formula that makes up OBP is the number of times a player walked.

If you were managing a baseball club and you had a runner in scoring position and down two runs, would you want Andre to swing for the fences or take a walk?

Andre didn't bat clean-up for the Cubs to get on base, he batted in that position to knock Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace in. (If the Cubs ever had a consistent lead-off hitter in the late 80s and early 90s, I would have mention him too!)

If Andre didn't knock them in more than likely no one would behind him. The Cubs didn't exactly support Andre with quality hitters in the 5 slot. Let's look at some of those players during his time with the Cubs: Dwight Smith, Luis Salazar, Lloyd McClellan, Hector Villanueva, etc. *

As a manager or a fan I want to see the big hitters trying to get a hit or sacrifice a fly to score runs. Yes, Andre didn't walk much in his career, but what the authors of these articles failed to mention is that Andre ranks 10th ALL-TIME in sacrifice flies with 118! **

So 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame voters, I ask you when considering Hall of Fame induction regarding OBP, leave it to Roberto Alomar and Barry Larkin. For Andre, look at how many runs he knocked in over the years (34th ALL-TIME by the way with 1591). **

1 comment:

Sorry I couldn't get the Hawk in the Hall via my blog... It was close, two more votes would have done it. I think there are quite a few guys who don't just deserve to be in the Hall, they belong there... Hawk is surely one of those guys...

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How did I become a fan of Andre Dawson? I have been a die-hard Cubs fan my entire life. Of all of the Cub players through the years, no player has played the game with more dignity and respect as "The Hawk."